Post-Vacation Panda Life

We have officially been back from VA for a week. It's been quite the week, with readjusting to our normal life again. I put normal in italics because the life we left isn't quite what we returned to. Josh started his new job at Panda Express the week before we left on our trip, but everything was so new that we didn't really get a good idea of what it would be like. So coming home from VA, halfway through his third week there, was an adjustment. 

Josh's new schedule is completely different than his schedule at Kneaders. He loves it. Josh has never been a morning person, so doing the 5am thing at Kneaders was never enjoyable for him and made his 10 hour days seem unbearably long. But somehow, working 9am-midnight feels like less work for him now because it isn't as early. He's crazy. :) And don't worry, that isn't his schedule everyday. He works 5 days a week. Three of those five days he has been closing (which has him getting home between 11pm-12am) and the other two days he is off at 8pm. I am so used to him getting home at 3-4pm and having all afternoon and evening together. But I must admit, he is so much happier coming home on these late nights, so I'm happy. When he was at Kneaders, he often came home completely exhausted. Even though we had the whole evening to do things, we hardly did because he was always so drained. And his days off were typically the same. So this new schedule definitely suits him much better. And I just keep telling myself, it's temporary. :)

Other than the new schedule, Panda has been treating Josh incredibly well. They really treat their employees so great. It's a fresh change. Although Josh did everything a GM did at Kneaders, he was never officially given the title (or the pay) of a GM and so that feeling of complete ownership wasn't there. Josh is still in training and I would guess he probably already feels more confident and more ownership where he is now. His ACO (regional manager) is amazing and has been bending over backwards to help us. She put him in the Orem store for training (even though it's out of her region) because it was so close to home for us. And she is most likely placing Josh is an amazing store! As far as we know, he will be the GM for the Saratoga Springs Panda Express. It was built in February so it has the new Panda look. The new Panda stores are amazing. Josh and I drove up to the store yesterday as part of a date night to scope it out and for him to show me around. I was really impressed. It's also wonderful because it has high sales (which translate to bigger bonuses) which is a huge blessing. We are very optimistic about it! He won't get his official assignment until training is over, but it sounds like that will most likely be his store, and that's what we're hoping. 

Here is how the rest of Josh's training will go:

Panda requires at least 7 weeks of training before your California trip to test with corporate. And at least a month before your CA trip, you have to attend a self-help weekend seminar in Denver. So, Josh will be leaving for Denver next weekend for the Landmark Forum. He's really excited. He's heard a lot of great things about it. Then he'll come back, train some more and his CA trip is scheduled for Sept. 23-26. Yes, that is the week before my due date. I'm nervous but there isn't much we can do about it. Postponing his CA trip will postpone him getting into his store and getting started, so we are just hoping for the very best! After his CA trip he will be officially placed in his store and begin as GM. 

His training has been incredible. He feels amazing about everything he's learned. Panda Express is incredibly organized and professional about their training and the way they run their stores, so his training has been smooth and he feels confident in everything he's doing. It's really been such a blessing. 

We're so excited about this new opportunity. The more we learn about the company, the more excited we get. There is a ton of room for growth and the company is expanding across the East Coast right now which is where we would like to potentially end up. So we feel really good about all of it. 

And now, some pictures. :)

You've probably seen a Panda Express like this:

that signature purple and orange...yikes.

 You've probably even seen one like this:

the newer design and much more modern

 But have you seen a Panda like this?

this is the newest open-concept layout. they are very modern and really nice!

If Josh ends up in Saratoga Springs (a 20 minute drive from where we currently live) this would be his store. Neat, right? I think so. 

VA trip: The end

Tuesday was our last day before we left VA so we hung around the house and took it easy. There was a big storm in the early evening that day and since we hadn't done much I decided to strip Elliott down and let her play in the rain. Since we really don't get good rain like this in Utah. She was a little hesitant at first (especially when the thunder boomed) but she warmed up to it and loved it! 

She is such a sweetie. 

We had such an amazing time in VA with my family. We really, really missed Josh. It's always hard being away that long, but we got to talk a bunch and FaceTime which is always so wonderful. I loved seeing Elliott fall in love with my family. She definitely knows Josh's family better because most of them live so close, so I was overjoyed to spend so much time with my family and for her to fall in love with them. She calls my sister "namie" which just kills me. On Wednesday, during our long day of traveling, she asked for Jamie constantly! It was so adorable but also made me so sad that we had to say goodbye. Hopefully it won't be long until we're together again! We love them all and already miss them like crazy! Here's to hoping we end up living somewhere much closer! 

Puddle jumping and pink toes! 

One of my favorite parts of the whole trip was family prayers each night. Elliott got so excited and would rush over next to Mark on the ottoman and fold her little arms. They were so sweet. It made me so happy. Of course when she was smiling my camera decided to focus on the dumb lamp. But I got a cute one below too. :) 

VA trip: Maymont Park

Saturday was mostly spent recovering from our looonnngg day on Friday and I think we may have gone to another mall? It's kind of all a blur. Sunday was church. I loved their ward. Elliott loved nursery too. She did amazing. Ran right in and didn't look back. Love her. 

On Monday, Mark went back to work (after 7 days off!) so in the morning we did some brainstorming on what we could do that day. My mom thought the zoo would be fun but we decided it was too expensive. $15 a person times 5. Yikes. My sister recommended this huge 100 acre park called Maymont in Richmond. It is full of beautiful gardens and waterfalls and even has a few animal exhibits. And the best part? It's free. So we packed some lunches and headed over. We decided to go ahead and eat lunch first so we could stash all the stuff in the car after eating and not have to lug it around the park. We found a big shaded area of grass and ate our packed lunches. Yum. Then we started our trek. And boy was it a trek. I thought the other days had been hot, but man was I mistaken! It was so stinking hot. We were all dying. It was about half shaded so there were lots of places to stop and rest, but that humidity just kills you. We hit up the Japanese and Italian gardens first. So pretty. There were about 100 stairs leading down to the gardens so I carried Elliott and my sister, mom and Taylor tag-teamed bringing the stroller down. But we made it! That was the last of the stairs, but definitely not the last of the heat. 

After the gardens we treked up and around the other side of the park to the bear exhibit! And we were so lucky. One of the black bears was out walking around and walked so close to us. There were two fences and he was right up against the second fence. He walked up and down the fence then wandered into the water and swam around a bit. Elliott was so excited about the bear! She loves bears but had never seen one in real life (since the zoo in SC that she didn't remember). She loved it! Who am I kidding, we all loved it! 

After the bears was a small aviary. They had eagles, hawks, owls, vultures and a bunch of other birds. We were all pretty hot at this point, as you can start to tell by the pictures, but it was still a lot of fun to see. We decided to go ahead and head back to the car after the birds since it was a long walk back and we were all hot and tired. It probably sounds like we didn't do much, but between everything there was a ton of walking. We spent a few hours there! On the way back to the car we decided we need frozen yogurt, so we headed there after! Yum. Perfection. 

Seriously worth it though! Look at this place.

Off exploring with Taylor.

Japanese maple tree.

This was when he wandered far away from us, but he's still pretty close!

Elliott developed a bit of a hitting problem while we were in VA. We're working on it. But here she is telling me "No" and swinging to hit my camera. What a stinker.

Elliott's tiny little wingspan next to a bald eagle's.

Yeah, it was hot. Elliott didn't even walk but half of it and she was soooo sweaty, so you can only imagine how gross we looked and felt! 

Resting after walking up a huge hill back towards the car. 

I'm so glad we did it. Even though it was hot and I probably haven't been that sweaty in my entire life, we had a great time! 

VA trip: Mt. Vernon

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty low key. We did lunch at an awesome all-you-can-eat pizza and pasta buffet. We went to the mall and did some shopping and spent time at home relaxing from our day at the beach. 

Friday we planned a trip up to DC to visit Mt. Vernon (George Washington's home). It's about a two hour drive. Elliott did great on the way to the beach, but on the way up to DC she spent too much time looking down at the ipad or iphone and just 5 minutes before pulling into Mt. Vernon barfed everywhere in the car. It was disgusting! It's the first time she's thrown up since she was tiny and it was just as bad as I anticipated it to be. THANK GOODNESS my mom was in the back with her and did most of the cleaning, because I was just trying to control my own stomach and not be sick. Yuck. She threw up all over herself, her carseat, and into the diaper bag which was placed perfectly at her feet. Ugh. So gross. Sorry Elliott, but barf is not cute. 

We did our best to clean her up and wipe the carseat and my bag up. At this point, we weren't sure if she was just carsick or if she had some kind of bug, so we took it easy and walked around the gift shops and ate some lunch while we waited to make sure she was okay. I was stupid and didn't pack a spare outfit (seriously, who does that?) and so my sister and her husband were gracious enough to buy her this adorable Mt. Vernon shirt that she wore the rest of the day. Ha. She looked so cute running around in it. I have mild throw-up phobia, so of course I felt super sick for the next hour or so, thinking that we probably all had the flu and what a terrible day it was going to be, but it started to pass once I realized that Elliott was completely fine and wasn't going to be sick anymore. Phew. I can get so paranoid. So we paid for our tickets and headed in! 

Mt. Vernon was amazing. I learned so much about George Washington. I didn't realize how little I knew about him...or maybe forgot? Who knows. But it was awesome. There were a couple museums to walk through which we did first while we waited for our allotted time for our house tour. There was a great movie about the wars he fought in that had rumbling seats and real snow that fell from the ceiling. Elliott loved it. She kept saying, "again, again!" After a short line in the heat, we got to the house. His house was awesome. 40% of the things in the house were original. Pretty amazing. They even had his and Martha's bed that he died in. After the tour, we walked around a bit outside looking at the grounds and the Potomac River. It was beautiful! Then we walked down to the tomb where him and Martha and a whole bunch of other family members are buried. 

Then we hit up the cafeteria again and the gift shops before heading out. 

Unfortunately, we hit traffic heading out of DC so it took quite a while to get home. But we stopped for dinner and Elliott did great, so that was a relief. Apparently, I'm gonna have to make sure she looks up a lot when we drive long distance. It was a great day though!

Us in front of his house

My beautiful mom! 

On George's back porch looking over the Potomac River.

I seriously love them.

Mom and her girls! Don't mind my crazy hair. Humidity is not my friend apparently.

And all the girls.

Elliott loves her cousins.

Elliott has the perfect resting spot on my big belly! :)

George and Martha's resting place.

And another sleeping Elliott.